Oral and intestinal digestion of oligosaccharides as potential sweeteners: A systematic evaluation

The utilisation of oligosaccharides by oral microorganisms and intestinal enzymes are important factors in determining their effectiveness as alternative sweeteners. In this study, classes of naturally occurring sugars were assessed using in vitro models for oral and intestinal digestibility, in order to test the influence of chemical structure on functional properties. Amongst the classes of sucrose isomers, α-glucobioses, β-glucobioses and sucrose-based oligosaccharides, structures were identified that were not utilised by the common oral bacterium Streptococcus mutans, and would therefore contribute to the non-cariogenic potential of a sweetener. Analysis of the rate and products of digestion by a rat glucosidase mixture was used to determine the relative intestinal digestibility. The results showed that oligosaccharides containing a (1 → 6)-β-Glc group, including gentiobiose and gentiobiitol, together with melezitose, a sucrose-derived oligosaccharide containing a α-Glc-(1 → 3)-Fru moiety were resistant to digestion by both S. mutans and mammalian intestinal enzymes, highlighting their potential as dietary sugar substitutes.     

Democracy and non-profit housing. The tensions of residents’ involvement in the Danish non-profit sector

Resident democracy as a special form of participatory democratic set-up is fundamental in the understanding, and self-understanding, of the non-profit housing sector in Denmark. Through a case study, the paper explores how resident democracy is perceived and narrated between residents and employees at a housing association. The study indicates that the meta-story of democracy is disconnected from practice and the lived lives of residents. Three analytical tensions structure the analysis, which relate to the conditions for realizing the democratic ideal embedded in the structure of the sector. The tensions are related to representative versus participatory democracy; collectivity versus individuality; and service versus welfare. The tensions elucidate how resident democracy is squeezed between different logics, which result in an ambiguous setting for practising democracy. Based on the results, the article discusses conditions for prospective democracy in the Danish non-profit housing sector.     

Using the cassiopeia method to design a robot soccer team

We have defined the Cassiopeia method, whose specificity is to focus the analysis and design of a multiagent system on the notion of organization. This article reports the use of this methodological framework for designing and implementing the organization of a robot soccer team in the context of a research project on collective robotics. We show why we chose this application, and we discuss its interest and inherent difficulties, in order to clearly express the needs for a design methodology dedicated to distributed artificial intelligence.     

Discovery of Heterocyclic Nonacetamide Synaptic Vesicle Protein 2A (SV2A) Ligands with Single‐Digit Nanomolar Potency: Opening Avenues towards the First SV2A Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Ligands

The role of the synaptic vesicle protein 2A (SV2A) protein, target of the antiepileptic drug levetiracetam, is still mostly unknown. Considering its potential to provide in vivo functional insights into the role of SV2A in epileptic patients, the development of an SV2A positron emission tomography (PET) tracer has been undertaken. Using a 3D pharmacophore model based on close analogues of levetiracetam, we report the rationale design of three heterocyclic non‐acetamide lead compounds, UCB‐A, UCB‐H and UCB‐J, the first single‐digit nanomolar SV2A ligands with suitable properties for development as PET tracers.     

The development of railway safety in Finland

This study reviews the development of railway safety in Finland from 1959 to 2008. The results show that the level of safety has greatly improved over the past five decades. The total number of railway fatalities did not show any obvious decreasing or increasing trend during the first decade, but since the early 1970s the annual number of fatalities has decreased from about 100 to 20. The estimated overall annual reduction per year from 1970 to 2008 was 5.4% (with a 95% confidence interval from −8.2% to −2.6%). The reduction in subcategories per million train-kilometres from 1959 to 2008 was 4.4% per year for passengers, 8.3% for employees, 5.0% for road users at level crossings and 3.6% for others (mainly trespassers). The safety improvement for passengers and staff was probably influenced by the introduction of central locking of doors in passenger cars and improved procedures to protect railway employees working on the tracks. The number of road users killed at level crossings has fallen due to the installation of barriers and the construction of overpasses and underpasses at crossings with dense traffic, removal of level crossings, and an improvement of conditions such as visibility at crossings. The number of trespasser fatalities has seen the least decline. Key plans for the future include further reduction of the number of level crossings on the state railway network from the current roughly 3500–2200 by 2025, and involving communities in safety work related to railway trespassers.